For two years running, CHS readers have voted Capitol Hill Station as the most important story of the year. In 2015, it was the light rail station’s unveiling after years of construction. 2016 brought CHS’s (the other CHS!) start of service. Now, 2017 brought the fruition of more than a decade of community planning as the designs for “transit oriented development” around the station were finalized. But 2017 on Capitol Hill also included stories of great sadness and stories of triumph and change. The “S-path” opened. It snowed on Christmas. The mayor fell from grace. Some of the most important we remembered are below.

It might tell you more about the past five years than 2017 to know that 33 new “openings” was part of a general cooldown in Capitol Hill’s ongoing food and drink economy boom. More than two dozen new bar, restaurant, and cafe ventures opened their doors around the Hill for the first time this year. In the underpinning of those openings, however, we find a softness. During the boom, we’ve never included more openings on top of another recent opening that so quickly became a recent closing or more reboots. And if it wasn’t for poke sand sushi — pizza was 2016, yo — the 2017 opening tally would be even lower.

CHS’s yearly tallies are probably missing a name here or there, include some stretch-y borders, might include a double-count or three, and… well, you get the idea. (Source: CHS)

CHS won’t pretend to be able to explain why all the things that happen, happen. Surely, every boom must have a bust — or, at least, a slowing. The nature of the business — and margins — will mean shifts in approach over time.

One thing to point out about the year in food+drink 2017 is that even on what looks like the backside of the upward curve, Capitol Hill has a rich and varied network of ambitions, community, and creativity to present to patrons. And in the midst of it, there were still a few big, new ideas — albeit, in slightly little smaller spaces.

Did 2017 even happen or was it just an extension of 2016? Seattle’s housing market remains the “hottest” in the nation. Yay for existing homeowners. Sorry for renters and everybody else. Capitol Hill’s population is pushing 34,000 and, unfortunately, there is likely continuity in the mood around affordability and housing. In our review of 2016 development, more than 40% of respondents said they were less optimistic about the future of Capitol Hill — and renters were even more pessimistic.

Fortunately, 2017’s year in development around Capitol Hill was marked by small steps forward to address the affordability crisis while some of the last big remaining chunks of not-so-recently redeveloped blocks finally hit the market and found new buyers with new plans for six — and, maybe soon, seven — stories. Some buyers, however, were happy to keep things the way they are. For now.

Meanwhile in the Central District, tensions rose over the pangs of investment, change, and gentrification before settling into a different kind of march toward what seems like progress. It was a busy, fast moving year.

Below are the top stories CHS reported on in the year in development. Maybe this year, the future of the Hill will look a little brighter.

The CHS Flickr Pool contains more than 33,000 photographs — most of Capitol Hill images, many glorious, some technically amazing. Here, you’ll find the 20 photographs the Flickr algorithm has deemed as the “most interesting” images taken by the neighborhood shutterbugs who contributed to the group. The magical recipe combining the ideas of “most viewed” and more did an alright job sorting out some of the more compelling images taken this year. But you can also spin back through our “this week in pictures” archive to see the many amazing images the algorithm missed. Meanwhile, you can also check out 2016 in pictures from CHS’s photographers and reporters.Continue reading →

What the end of Seattle’s ‘wettest meteorological winter season’ looked like

RBG the CD

We have again selected a collection of images that helped tell the story of the past year on the streets and in the neighborhoods around Capitol Hill. In 2016, there were 88 that demanded further attention. The work includes images from the many reporters and writers and community of photography contributors who have shared their work with CHS. In 2016, we said goodbye to reporter Bryan Cohen — though you will see plenty of his work, below — and wished him the best of luck in his new pursuits. You will find a few shots from new addition Kaylee Osowski and we were lucky in 2016 to continue to frequently feature the work of photographer Alex Garland and neighborhood shutterbug Tim Durkan along with his views of Broadway and Pike/Pine by night. Thanks to all the contributors who shared their work with CHS in 2016. More of the great, terrible, and what?? images of 2016, below.

In 2015, CHS readers voted the unveiling of the soon to open Capitol Hill Station as the most important story of the year. We would wager it is likely to top the list again in 2016. The opening of the $110 million or so light rail station was one of the big stories CHS covered in 2016. There were others including a busy year for our neighbors in the Central District as one of the classic storylines from Capitol Hill — shockingly large land development deals — migrated to the south away from Pike/Pine. Meanwhile, Capitol Hill struggled with gun violence. The topsy turvy year also included stories of terrible evil and sad tragedies mixed with just enough intrigue and hope to keep you reading and us writing to find out what happens next.

CHS’s yearly tallies are probably missing a name here or there, include some stretch-y borders, might include a double-count or three, and… well, you get the idea. (Source: CHS)

If things work out with final permits and logistics, Katsu Burger could become the 36th new restaurant, cafe, or bar to open across and around Capitol Hill in 2016. But here is the thing about CHS’s ongoing tally of new food and drink ventures opening on Capitol Hill over the years. There are all sorts of things in the mix.

Of the 36 new places we are semi-officially logging for 2016, six aren’t actually on Capitol Hill, and the list includes everything from a new life for the Broadway coffee shack as Let it Bean to the ambitious I-5 Shores buildout of the charming Harry’s Fine Foods. That 2016 spectrum topped by the Harry’s project bootstrapped by creative first time restaurateurs, by the way, marked a departure from recent years when the neighborhood saw a handful of huge investments in surprisingly massive restaurant palaces. In 2015, that kind of ambition created Renee Erickson’samazing Pike/Pine trio of Melusine+Bateau+General Porpoise — in 2016, that ambition clearly paid off as Bateau was picked by many as the restaurant of the year. There were no new palaces created in 2016 Capitol Hill food and drink but lots of smaller, maybe warmer spaces like Harry’s or the restoration of the old way in the historic Loveless Building at Cook Weaver.

Like Cook Weaver, the story of 2016 wasn’t only the new. The ongoing transition to a $15 minimum wage brought new ways of doing business and changes to the crucial underpinnings of the food and drink economy like tipping. It was also a revealing year for the realities of food and drink’s inherent risk as we sifted through the financial wreckage of Bauhaus and the founder of Tavern Law. And a few old timers celebrated important milestones and new beginnings.

Busts Let’s start with the bad news. While critics have been waiting for a Capitol Hill restaurant and bar bubble to pop, we’re not sure those critics will ever get such a clear conclusion to the year after year cliffhangers. But we did see a few small “pops” along the way in 2016. There were two financial implosions within the Capitol Hill food and drink family that revealed just how tenuous growth can be in the business. Continue reading →

Catherine Hillenbrand, community activist, in 2016 saw a decade of her work to help shape public priorities for the Capitol Hill Station development finally come to fruition

Demolition to make way for the Broadway Whole Foods

The future Hugo House

In 2016, the Excelsior was born

Tim Burgess and friends celebrate early Prop 1 housing levy returns in August

There it is. Just as 2016 staggers to a close, market analysts — with a heavy stake in the outcome — say, looky, Seattle rents may have finally reached a “turning point” after years of mostly unabated increase. Will 2017 be the year Capitol Hill rents finally break? If so, 2016 will be marked as the final thrust of the old way of Seattle boom development as the new HALA-throttled marketplace is finally whipped into shape. For the pessimists — or, perhaps, optimistic landlords — if rents haven’t really turned that climb upside down and Seattle’s affordability crisis continues, then, well, 2016 will represent more of the same even as our intentions grew. Here is a look at how the year in development played out on Capitol Hill.

Don’t worry. CHS will move fully into 2016 soon. We have to keep pace with 2015 when we published 1,530 stories. First, we still have a few more things to take account of in the year that was. Below, we’ve tallied CHS’s 2015 ‘most’ posts including the stories that were most-read and most-commented on during the year. All of our Year in Review 2015 coverage is here.

CHS CALENDAR

With one exception, we will be meeting there the 3rd Monday of the month from 6:00 – 7:30 for the rest of the year. Thank you to Capitol Hill Housing for making the space available.Share:TwitterFacebookRedditEmailPrint

For Seattle-based artist Ko Kirk Yamahira, the finished painting is a beginning rather than an end. Painstakingly removing individual threads from the weave of the canvas, he deconstructs his paintings, turning surface into form. He often disrupts the geometry of … Continue reading →

Always, Sometimes, Never brings the work of New York-based conceptual artist Tavares Strachan to Seattle for the first time. Strachan incorporates science, art, and the environment to create works that are ambitious in scale and scope. Many of his projects investigate … Continue reading →

Location Frye Auditorium Present-moment awareness is essential to experience and appreciate any work for art, but it can be elusive and we often find ourselves distracted or lost in thought. Through the training and practice of mindfulness meditation we can … Continue reading →

Join us for our six-ish mile all paces run. For Tuesday run, we have a winter route at 5.7 mi and a summer route at 6.3 mi. The summer route explores the trails of Interlaken and the Arboretum. The winter … Continue reading →